Loving the Journey in the New Work World
Have you ever had a song on the radio that really pulled you in and make you dig deeper into the message it expressed? That happened to me just the other day when the song “Calypso” by John Denver came on the radio. Written by Denver in 1975, the song is a tribute to Jacques-Yves Cousteau and his research ship, the Calypso. John Denver was a close friend of Cousteau, and being a lover of nature, he wrote a song about the Calypso, the research boat that sailed around the world promoting ocean conservation. Cousteau was a great believer that human beings can learn many important lessons from the sea, even if we ourselves live on land.
As a recruiter for over thirty (30) years, I can’t help but notice the connection between this song and the New Work World. We are all metaphorically, Captains of our own ships as we navigate through the sometimes rocky seas of our own career journeys. As we continue our voyage into 2023 how might we find smoother sailing and even “love” the journey more?
In just a few days we will dive into the month of February, and the etymology of the word might point us in the right direction. The month of February was named for a Roman festival of purification called Februa. While the festival itself might belong to an ancient culture, the concept of an annual cleansing is still applicable today. I’m sure we are all ready to wash away the uncertainty and struggle of the last three years and steer our career ships towards a brighter destination in our professional lives.
Let’s consider some steps from the Faremouth Method that might support us to reset our compass and find smoother sailing in the New Work World in 2023.
1. Do a Self-Inventory
All learning must begin somewhere, and doing a Self-Inventory is a great place to start. As employers if we do a Self-Inventory we might begin to understand that there is a major talent shortage at this time. This can help us focus on attracting the right people to our organization. Even if they might not have all the boxes checked on their skills requirement sheet, they might still be highly trainable and become stellar employees. Can we implement more training programs internally? Can we partner our new hires with more senior employees as mentors? As employees in the New Work World if we feel held back at our place of employment, before we jump ship, can we investigate ways to become more valuable to our current employers that will enhance our market worth? Can we impress the Captains of the management teams to see us as more valuable employees, which might translate into future promotions or allow us to receive a raise at performance review time?
2. Step Out of Your Comfort Zone
What if, as employers, we begin to Step Out of Our hiring Comfort Zone and look in new places for our talented new hires? What if we partnered with organizations and educational facilities that might offer internships and work study programs? What if we dropped some of the educational requirements of a four year degree and looked at alternative educational programs or experiential learning? As employees, what if we stretched ourselves a bit and took online evening classes to get the necessary up-to-date training skills that might really benefit our employers? What if we came in early and stayed late to assist our Manager with that special project, knowing she’s short of staff at this time? How could these steps outside of our comfort zones make us stand out as a dedicated employee, worthy of being treated as a greater asset to the company?
3. Be a Hunter
What if, as employers, we hunt for new methods to reach our destination in the New Work World? What if we illuminate our minds and go after new ways of hiring the talented people we need? What if, once we hire them, we implement new policies and procedures that lead to greater retention? As employees, what if we steered our metaphorical ship in a new direction to hunt for those new ways of being even more of service to our employer and sailing our career ships around the rough waters at work into smoother sailing? What if we hunted for more team-oriented approaches in our daily work lives? What if, instead of simply having a “Me” mindset at work, we adopt more of a “We” mindset, where we consider the challenges our management teams might be experiencing after a few years or sailing on turbulent seas?
